


warm love in a cold world

by Ness09



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Ben is head over heels in love, Bev adores him just as much, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Snowmen, benverly - Freeform, building a snowman, honestly these two are the cutest, they are engaged i just thought that was important to mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 13:05:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16682158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ness09/pseuds/Ness09
Summary: “But aren’t you cold?”“Not any colder than Sherman here”, she said, lovingly patting the half-finished snowman.He snorted. “That’s not reassuring at all. He’s made of snow.”She laughed, bright and carefree. He could just scoop her up and swing her around and listen to her laugh forever. “He still has feelings, Ben.”“Unlike your hands.”Bev wants to build a snowman in the middle of the night, and Ben has to save her from hypothermia.





	warm love in a cold world

The room was dark, the only faint light coming from the TV. The movie had ended, but Netflix was already recommending them more Christmas rom-coms. Ben buried his face in the blanket. He was going back to sleep. He was warm and cozy, and he never wanted to move again. He would just have to call in sick tomorrow. They couldn’t expect people to go outside when it was cold.

It was only when he tried to snuggle up to Bev, that he realized she was gone. She had been the first to fall asleep, and Ben had carefully laid her down on the couch without waking her and put the blanket over them, but now she was gone. He waited a moment. She was probably in the bathroom or in the kitchen, but as she laid there and listened to the sounds of their house, it quickly became clear, it was just him and the banging of the old radiator.

Where was she? If she had gone to the corner store to get some snacks, she would’ve left him a note, but there were only their empty hot cocoa cups and an opened box of cookies on the coffee table. No notes. He checked his phone to see if Richie had sent and SOS in the group chat or come up with another weird idea that Bev just couldn’t say no to, but nothing there either.  

He yawned. It was too late in the night to go on a search for her, but it seemed like he had no other choice. He threw the blanket off and immediately regretted the move as the cold crawled under his clothes. “Bev?”, he called. No answer.

He wandered into their bedroom, to check if she had just gone to bed already. No Bev here either. He hadn’t expected to find her anyway, Bev never went to sleep without him. Even if he stayed out past midnight – which he rarely did, but it happened – even then Bev would be waiting up for him. He tried to do the same for her, but he wasn’t very good at resisting sleep, so it always ended up with her climbing into bed and snuggling up to him, kissing his neck and telling him to go back to sleep.

It had been snowing all evening, large snowflakes the size of cotton balls drifting down from the sky. Ben cast a look outside to see how high the snow had piled up already, and that’s where he found her. In the glow of the street lamps, ankle-deep in the snow and wearing nothing but leggings, boots and one of his coats that made her look tiny. Out in the front yard. Building a snowman.

He took a moment to take in the sight of her. The snow was still falling all around her. It got caught in her flaming hair and turned her cheeks, nose and ears red. God, he loved her.

And then he noticed she wasn’t even wearing gloves and it was almost midnight, and she was surely going to be sick if he didn’t get her inside soon. He loved her and her ideas, but he’d love her more if he didn’t have to spoon-feed her chicken soup for the next week.

She looked up, when he pulled the front door shut behind him, her smile stretching across her entire face. “Look at all this snow!”, she cried and stretched her arms out, tilted her head back and let the snow fall on her face. “Isn’t it amazing?”

“It is”, he agreed. He’d wanted to be stern with her, but how could he when she was this excited? “How long have you been out here?”

She shrugged and went back to building her snowman. She was currently working on the middle.

“Don’t you think we should get back inside?”, he asked. “It’s freezing out here.”

“No. I have to finish this. I can’t leave him without a body and a head.”

Her hands were already bright red from the cold, but he knew there was nothing he could say to make her change her mind. Not when she had that look in her eyes. The same one she’d had, when she’d bet Richie she could go longer without smoking a cigarette – they had gone for almost a year and Bev had lit her cigarette mere seconds after Richie had caved, or when she’d first stepped foot in their house and Ben had had to tell her it was out of their price range. It was useless to argue with her, when she got that look.

“But aren’t you cold?”

“Not any colder than Sherman here”, she said, lovingly patting the half-finished snowman.

He snorted. “That’s not reassuring at all. He’s made of snow.”

She laughed, bright and carefree. He could just scoop her up and swing her around and listen to her laugh forever. “He still has feelings, Ben.”

“Unlike your hands.” He grabbed them. Thank God, he was wearing gloves because he could feel how cold they were even through the thick wool.

She pulled them away, only to sneak them under the collar of his jacket. They were icicles. He may or may not have yelped, a high-pitched uncontrollable sound, but in his defense, this was an attack. He had half a mind to get revenge, to scoop up some snow and put it down her back, but she was laughing again. Their noses were almost touching, their breath stood between them in clouds and he could see the snowflakes melting in her lashes. All of a sudden, he didn’t mind her icicle hands anymore. She could put him in an ice bath right here and now for all he cared, if only she kept looking at him like that. “I love you.”

She pressed her forehead against his. She’d told him, she loved him many times before, and yet he still got clammy hands and a racing heart every time. They’d been together for years now – eight to be exact – and he still couldn’t believe he got this lucky. But this time she didn’t say it. “Good, then you can help me give Sherman a head”, she said, pulling away from him again.

Ben had known this was going to be the outcome, the two of them out in the yard, building a snowman in the middle of the night, but it still made him smile. Life with Bev was never boring. It was either snowmen in the night or her deciding they were going to learn how to cook an entire cookbook from front to back in just one weekend or vacations that suddenly changed destination in the last second. It had been a lot at first, but with time he’d come to love how spontaneous she was and how much fun she had getting him to try new things. It didn’t matter to him if they were spending their evening at home in front of the television or went out to a club with their friends or went on a treasure hunt across the city, as long as he got to do it with her. That’s all he ever wanted to be. By her side.

“Can you at least take my gloves?”, he said, already offering them to her. “I don’t want you to get frostbite.”

She held out her hands to him, so he could put them on her, and while he had her standing still for a moment, he put his hat and his scarf on her as well. For good measure. When he was done, she threw her arms around him and kissed him. The smile never disappearing from her lips. He could not only feel it but taste it. When she was this bubbly and happy, it soaked through her whole body. It was on the tip of her tongue, on her cold lips. It was in the beating of her heart. It danced in her eyes.

She cupped his face in her hands, when she pulled away. “I love you”, she told him. Just like the first time he’d heard it, his heart was racing, his cheeks flushed, and the smile was permanently plastered to his face. He was the luckiest guy on earth.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I realized how underappreciated these two precious beans are. I'm no exception here, so I had to make it up to them.  
> This was very unoriginally named "Do you want to build a snowman" pls be grateful I changed the title
> 
> You can find me on tumblr @itchierichie


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